African culture, the case of Benin

Every person has a history of its own. History that it defends by keeping it alive in its life habits. This history is qualified as culture. In Africa, particularly in Benin, culture is a source of curiosity for European people. Do you want to discover the Beninese culture?

Beninese culture through beliefs

Beninese culture is based on several factors, including that of belief. Indeed, the basic Beninese beliefs are unique, but listed according to the role that each deity plays. Thus we can cite the divinity of thunder, called Sango, which favours the fall or the non-fall of rain. The major goddess, queen of fish and water, Yemanja. Without her, fishing is difficult. The god of the hunt, Oshossi, makes hunting easy for his subjects. The god of the sea, Olokun. The god of gold and health promotes good health and wealth. The fallen deity, messenger of the gods. She is in charge of transmitting requests and prayers to the gods. With this diversity and specificity, one comes to pray and make offerings (sacrifices) to the god solicited for a specific need.

language, vehicle of all cultures

It is very often repeated that it is through language that the history of peoples is known. This is a reality, because with the language, fully studied, in a detailed way, we can trace the course of the peoples who speak this language. As the task of the scientists known today as linguistics, tracing the history of a language makes it possible to know the values, the cultures, the traditions of the peoples. This can even be illustrated by the fact that Catholic Christian laws (the Ten Commandments) were well observed by Africans before the arrival of missionaries. Did you know that names in Africa were not an invention? Yes, and this is done according to circumstances. A child, for example, born on the way will be called Alihonou. The birth position of children also contains messages. With this, we know the birth order.